Obama pledged in 2008 to create 5 million green collar workers within a decade. |
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But the idea didn’t really take root in everyday political lexicon until the end of the George W. Bush administration as Democratic presidential candidates swarmed to the idea as an antidote to the economic collapse.

Obama pledged in his 2008 campaign to create 5 million green collar workers within a decade. And he’s spent considerable time since entering the White House trying to make that happen.

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The economic stimulus package had a historic amount of money for clean energy technology and is the driving force behind White House efforts to estimate how many people have either gotten a green job or had their existing employment saved.

There have also been plenty of complications. The housing market collapse that helped create the financial crisis also cut into the number of people looking to hire environmentally minded architects, builders and contractors.

"It's hard to build a green building if you're not building at all," said Matt McDonald, a former Bush White House official who tracks economic data for Hamilton Place Strategies.

Green job development also starts at a low point in no small part because of the lack of earlier opportunities in renewables, energy efficiency, fuel cells and the smart grid.

"Clearly they were turbocharged through the stimulus process, but they are growing from pretty small bases," said Mark Muro, a Brookings Institution senior fellow and policy director.

Democrats say one of the key problems with the green jobs campaign is that the money and incentives have petered out in the two-plus years since Obama signed the stimulus package. And they’re not all that optimistic about new funding opportunities given the nation’s record debt levels.

"It just took a long time to get it going," said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the Appropriations Committee cardinal who oversees Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department spending. "And just when it was getting going, these recovery monies are running out."

Hoping to an end the reliance on anecdotes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is working on a first-ever report to quantify the green collar job workforce. It's surveying a list of 333 employment categories, from vineyard workers to steel mill operators and environmental journalists, occupations that meet a two-part definition in which the business produces goods or services that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources, or where the workers make the production process more green.

That report doesn't appear to have a deadline. But Obama is unlikely to stop talking about his commitment to the issue in the meantime.

"I wouldn't be surprised if they use the green jobs story in the same way they're using the auto story, as a place where they can tell somewhat of a good story, even if they don't have the fact base to make it really compelling," said McDonald.

"Here's the thing," he added. "There's not that many places where they can tell a good story about the economy, so the bar is very low for green jobs to be a centerpiece of his agenda."

This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 1:51 p.m. on June 11, 2011.

Readers' Comments (285)

If there were a genuine market for over-priced little cars and other green technologies, there wouldn't be a need for $80 billion of "stimulus". Especially in light of the fact that the venture capital community has been flinging money at so-called green companies. And at $80 billion of stimulus for 225,000 purely hypothetical jobs works out to $356,000 per job. This does not make me happy as I write out my second quarter tax check.

The catch? Nearly three years into Obama's presidency, the White House can't point to much solid evidence that significant numbers of Americans are scoring the green jobs the president has been touting.

Obama can't point to hardly anything that has been successful - can he? Employment sucks Border Security sucks TSA sucks Deficits suck Bloated Government is on the rise Incompetence is on the rise

Duh. A study back in 2009 showed Spain" discovered a couple of years ago its 2001 green policy cost billions and killed a couple of "regular" jobs for every one "green" one created. And cost a forturn as each of those green jobs cost over 700,000. Obama is a slow learner.

This has been a disaster. If we learned anything from the 20th century we should have learned that central planning does not work. Even the enlightened liberals, or should I say especially the enlightened liberals cannot pick which industries and products are going to be successful. That is determined by markets. Obama is destroying the private market and as a result destroying the private sector. Of course, a vibrant and properous private sector is required to support government (and community organizers). This president is a failure and it's time to repeal his ridiculous programs (including "green jobs") and move on.

Green jobs are a bunch of hogwash! If you have to subsidize something then it isn't economically good. $40,000 electric cars or 2 person shoe boxes, solar power at three time the cost, wind power when it blows. What wonderful ideas. It's all a big hoax by the Dumbocrats.

This article could be written about just about anything Obama has tried to do (short of killing UBL), which could be summed up as "Success eludes President Obama." It would help if he actually pursued policies likely to lead to success instead of expecting success to randomly happen for him if he simply waits patiently for it. That the Obama administration doesn't seem to have a clue how to actually make anything positive happen is also clear from the fact that they keep treating his popularity problems as a marketing and message problem rather than a lack of results problem. If Barack Obama were producing results and solving problems, he wouldn't need to raise a billion dollars to destroy his opponents because the race would be his to lose. It's hard to run against an incumbent by asking, "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" when the answer, for most people, is "Yes."

The only green job of any signifigance was the greenbacks flowing between GE and the Weiner Party members.

If only the Weiner Party leaders had a few more trillion dollars to spend then maybe they could green energy production up to 2% of total US energy production and kill a few more Golden Eagles in the process..

I think some of you misunderstand our great leader Obama's plans. This man Obama, who's social security number doesn't match any where he lived, whose draft card registration is either forged or suspect wants to destroy America in favor of One World Govt . He's just following the same orders that the Bushs, Clinton's and many others have followed. He's not working to create jobs , just to break the bank and destroy America.